Supercomputers just solved a 50-year-old mystery about giant stars

Astronomers have finally cracked a decades-old mystery about red giant stars—how material from their deep interiors makes its way to the surface. Using cutting-edge supercomputer simulations, researchers discovered that stellar rotation plays a powerful role in mixing elements across a previously unexplained barrier inside the star. For many years, scientists struggled to connect what happens deep inside a red giant to what is observed at its surface. Nuclear reactions in the core alter the star's internal composition, but a stable layer separates this region from the outer conv... [4252 chars]